Dr. Roger Gremminger's professional and volunteer career began in 1978. In his own words (as published in the first article he contributed for the new Wisconsin Light newspaper:

"I am a full-time emergency medicine physician (no private practice) who in addition has provided health care services to the Gay community (since 1978) on a volunteer basis. It was on January 11, 1978 when I was oriented and began to provide medical services at what was then the GPU VD Clinic. That was the occasion of my very first professional actions as a newly licensed physician. Since then I have remained a member of the medical staff of the clinic-- which has been knowns as the GPU VD Clinic, then GPU STD Clinic, then the Farwell STD Clinic, and finally as the present Brady East STD Clinic (BESTD Clinic)." Roger was appointed as the second Medical Director of the BESTD Clinic in July 1979."

Dr. Gremminger was an early observer and quick reactor to the new threat of AIDS: "In the Pre-AIDS era, I had woprked diligently to control gonnorrhea, syphilis, giardiasis, amebiasis, warts, and Hepatitis B. I had seen AIDS enter the community although at first I did not know what I was seeing. After completing a Hepatitis B study and starting a hepatitis B vaccination program, I began to work feverishly from December 1982 to July 1984 to alert the community of the danger of AIDS."

Roger contributed articles to the local LGBT community media on a regular basis. He wrote health columns in Gay Milwaukee and Our Horizon from 1979 until February 1982, when Our Horizon ceased publication. But when Wisconsin Light began publishing late in 1987, Dr. Gremminger was asked to contribute, and thus began appearing his "Medically Speaking" column in that newspaper.

Dr. Gremminger resigned as Medical Director at BESTD in July 1984, for professional and personal reasons- what many call "burn out". But he continued on the medical staff, volunteering at the clinic one or two times per month. But he made another generous gift to the community as well: he donated the building on Brady Street which had been housing the Clinic to the Clinic non-profit corporation, thus ensuring its continued operation without having to worry about lease payments. To this day, (2005), the BESTD Clinic continues to enjoy the building, and Roger continues to volunteer there as medical staff on a regular basis.